The problem of safety with ride sharing is probably larger than you ever imagined

Ride Sharing Safety

January 4, 2018

Recently I did a short safety video on tips to ride share safely with ride sharing systems (Uber, Lyft, etc...).

(If you haven't seen it click here)

The problem of predators pretending to be ride sharing drivers (Uber, Lyft, etc..) is probably much larger than you have ever imagined. A recent article at ESR (Employment Screening Resources) outlines numerous pending lawsuits and new laws aimed at making these services more safe. Would you believe that there have been:

• 345 reported sexual assaults
• 88 reported assaults
• 46 DEATHS

*Reported is italicized because reporting rates are notoriously low for these types of attacks*

According to a recent Washington Post article  "Nearly 15 percent of new ride-hail drivers in Maryland have been booted from the apps over the past six months for failing state screening, despite having passed Uber and Lyft’s background checks, according to the state Public Service Commission (PSC)." Obviously, these services are not nearly as safe as many of us (myself included) have thought.

I recently did a google search for "rape uber" and "rape lyft" and "rape ride sharing". The results were eye opening to say the least. Some examples of the results:

• Two anonymous women recently filed a proposed class action lawsuit
• Uber driver arrested for allegedly raping 16 year old
• Man accused of raping drunk DC area student
• A list of known incidents involving Uber and Lyft
• The case of PAVE ambassador Carl Westlund who was raped by a man posing as Uber driver

And many others...

The point is that while these services are extremely useful, they are not always as safe as we might think. Here are some very high-level safety tips:

• Make sure the car and driver match
• Have a "digital designated driver" when you are out drinking with friends - this is a person who's job it is to make sure you get into your ride home safely
• Share your trip with someone (CLICK HERE TO LEARN HOW)
• Text or call someone at your destination so they know to expect you
• Check to see that the locks, handles and car are in working order. The car should be clean and look like it is professionally used.

One of the problems with background checks is that they only catch prior criminals. If someone decides that this is the day they are going to break the law, no background check will prevent that. This is where having a good background in self-defense is well worth the time invested. If you do end up having to fight, do this one thing:

• Point your feet towards the person and keep kicking as long as you can
• Avoid being grabbed at all costs
• If you are stuck in the back seat kick the window, door or seat
• Make the driver step around the front of the car where you can see them before exiting

This is a very difficult problem to deal with. Hopefully we can raise more awareness to the problem and keep people.

Stay safe!

-Mike

Key self-defense concept - Attack timelines

Attack Timelines

August 21, 2018

One of the most important concepts that I have learned from KMG is the timeline of attacks. What we mean by timeline is that attacks develop over a period of time, one that is unique to each attack. The point in time where the attacker has decided to move against you, and that sequence of events meets you in reality, determines your response. A response from you early in the timeline will likely not work at the end of the timeline.

Learning to recognize attacks

Why is it that we need to train for so many years if we could simply avoid be attacked in the first place? The answer is that we can only respond early if we recognize the attack, and one of the best ways to recognize the attack is to have seen it many times previously, making it very recognizable. 

I like to say that we would rather you prevent being choked than escape from a choke. However, the only way to prevent being choked is for your brain to recognize that a choke is imminent, and have the associated motor skills to respond in a beneficial way. 

Achieving mastery 

Mastery in self-defense / fighting is having your brain recognize the attack that is developing, and to begin the correct response to that attack immediately. Imagine we take a video of an attack and look at the individual frames of the video. If a few seconds of film flash by at 30 frames per second, a novice will only recognize the attack near the end of the video, after hundreds of frames have passed. Their ability to respond and the type of usable responses will be limited by that point in time.

If you were to compare that to a master, ideally they would have already recognized and simultaneously started to respond on the first frame. Your instructors / masters are not necessarily physically faster than you are. They have simply seen the attacks so many times, and performed the correct responses so many times, that they react immediately. 

Freeing your brain

If your brain is able to respond pretty much on auto-pilot to a stimulus, it allows you to start thinking at a higher level. Instead of worrying about what hand they are striking with and how to defend it, you are thinking about 1 - 2 moves ahead, learning how your opponent responds to certain stimulus, and able to deal with higher level problems. 

This is why we spend so much time focusing on the fundamentals of movement and striking. It takes literally thousands of repetitions to achieve mastery of any particular movement. Sometimes this seems boring, but the end result is that your mind is capable of doing the necessary in the moment while starting to think ahead to the next move. 

Applications beyond fighting

The timeline of an attack may extend many minutes, hours, days or longer prior to any physical contact. This could involve all kinds of stalking or other pre-attack indicators that are situationally dependent. Once we intimately know the behavior of attackers, we can learn to see indicators much earlier than most. We like to say that are "prepared, not paranoid", and this is what we mean. You become much more situationally aware of your surroundings.

One of the benefits is that other types of problems, such as dealing with potential accidents, become easier to predict and respond to. You see the warning signs of road rage much earlier and begin processing your response sooner. When someone is about to fall or cause an accident, you can see it and respond earlier. (A simple example - I once saw a waiter next to me with two plates of food on it. I knew if she removed the wrong one it would be off balance and cause the other to fall. As I thought, she grabbed the plate closest to her, causing the platter to become unbalanced and tip over. I grabbed the now-in-flight plate from the air and placed it on the table. It looked like I was fast, but really I just anticipated the accident.)

Keep training

The answer to all things is self-defense is "keep training." At some point in your training career you will start to understand that the techniques you have been working on, are now working on you. Training systems have been around for thousands of years for a reason - they work. A good training system will cross over into vast parts of your life, not just your physical safety while under attack. The key is to keep training - forever. As in most things, those that persevere achieve the greatest rewards. 

Stalking - What to do when someone is stalking you

What to do when someone is stalking you

August 1, 2017

Unfortunately I have had numerous students who have had to deal with stalkers. Sometimes they are violent, sometimes just a nuisance, but they almost always disrupt your life in some way. Dealing with a stalker is not an easy task, and may involve more time and energy than you think it should. (As an aside, we have a great Escape and Evasion course offered - check here to see if one is on the calendar) Lets dig into some of the specifics of how to handle this.

The first thing I usually ask: is this person known to be dangerous? When presented with a stalker I want to know if I'm dealing with someone who has already been violent. If someone has been violent in the past, I 100% expect they can be again in the future. If they have not, I assume that they could be, but that we may have a little time on our hands. Based on their history we can start to build a background on what types of actions are most likely to happen in the future. Once we start painting a picture of their history, I want to know more about them and relationship they have to the victim. Everything is on the table, but a background on someone starts to fill in the missing pieces.

The next thing I want to know is the victims immediate circumstances. Where do they live? Where do they work? How much free cash do they have? Do they have safe people in their circle? Do they have a safe place to go? Are they armed? What plans have they already made? The questions about the victim tell me about their state of mind, their personal circumstance, and how much of a safety net they have to fall back on. The type and detail of the plans they have made tell me if they are taking this serious or not. 

In many cases (most actually) people do not take stalkers nearly serious enough. When someone is stalking you, and is dedicated to it, a tremendous amount of their time and resources are dedicated to the effort. It is something that is clearly important to them. If you are the subject of the stalking, you should keep that in mind before dismissing it as just someone who is seeking attention. They have already put their lives on hold to pursue you, threaten you, and interrupt your life. You should take their threats seriously.

Tips to become better prepared

Here are some good tips I've developed over the years.

Mindset

Imagine that you get a call - "You cannot go home and you need to be hard to find. NOW!" What would you do? That is the mindset you need to have when thinking about how to deal with a stalker. When you think about everything through that lens it changes everything. The comfortable life and luxuries you have now can suddenly be removed for an undetermined about of time. 

Action

Establish a plan of action.

1. Create distance! The more dangerous and disruptive the stalker, the further you may need to go. The safest place to be is not anywhere in the vicinity of the stalker.
2. Where would you go if you needed a safe place. A family members home may be a good short term option, but if your stalker knows your family they will look there first. Have a backup family member or friend to stay with. Alternative housing/hoteling is a good option if you can afford it.
3. How will you survive financially? This is where a safety net comes in very handy. You may need some financial assistance in the short term. I recommend keep at least $100 on your person (more if you can swing it) for emergencies. 
4. Document every interaction with your stalker. It can be used as evidence to support your case against them should it end up in court. 
5. Arm yourself. You might want a taser or some other non-lethal weapon, or even a firearm. The degree to which you arm yourself will depend on the perceived level of violence and your ability to use it. 
6. Have a bag of essentials. Sometimes referred to as a "bug out bag" or a "go bag", this is a bag of essential items that will help you survive for a short period of time should you find yourself needing to be on the move immediately. 
7. Create a police report. The police can't help if they don't know you are in trouble. Even if you just file a police report, at least the paper trail is officially started and will be reference point should anything escalate. If you need a restraining or protective order, I suggest you file one as soon as possible. This will also let the stalker know that you are serious about stopping them and that the authorities know about them. If you are successful in getting one, and the stalker violates it, there can be very real and serious consequences. 

Be aware of your surroundings

This sounds a bit cliche, but it is all too often true. We get comfortable with who and what is around us. We fall into routines, eat at the same place, work at the same place, and generally have a very similar schedule on a daily basis. You should be very mindful as you move through life, especially when you are being stalked. I tell students to be "prepared, not paranoid." Sometimes I hear that this is a huge amount of effort for some, when in reality it's just being conscientious of the goings on around you, and especially who is doing them. Being on the lookout for suspicious people, vehicles and situations should be a common practice anyway, and is a must when you are being stalked.

Worst case scenario's

As I mentioned earlier, many people do not take their situation as seriously as they should. Just because someone is stalking you does not mean they will be taken to jail or otherwise stopped through legal instruments. When I tell people this they seem to be taken completely off guard, not understanding that even though a stalker is bothering you it may not elevate to the level of legal enforcement. Many times people can't understand why their stalker just doesn't stop stalking. 

In the worst case scenarios, stalking can lead to:

• Being taken hostage (in various forms)
• Being injured or killed
• Having property damaged or destroyed 
• Having your entire life, image, work, business, and relationships affected

In some instances I simply recommend that people relocate to another part of the country, even if temporarily. Given the seriousness of some situations, your life is more important than what you might lose by staying. I tell people that they aren't running, just starting a new chapter in their lives.

Students attending one of our Escape and Evasion courses.

Ground Fighting Workshops

The first and second events were jam packed with students, and we are expecting the third event to be the same. Be sure to be there Saturday August 12th from 1 - 4pm. We have a great class of ground submissions planned, including:

• Triangle chokes
• Arm triangle chokes
• Arm bars
• Shoulder locks
• Rear naked choke
• Anaconda and other front arm chokes
• Escapes from all of the above

These are courses you don't want to miss!

-MIke

Escape and Evasion August 5 - 6th

We have a few spots left for our August 5th - 6th Escape and Evasion workshop. Be sure to register quickly! Here is the link.

Women's Self Defense

I have either been at a gym training or owned one myself going on about 25 years. Over those years I have seen a distinct lack of women training in self-defense. Usually women consist of about 10 - 20% of the schools population. I noticed this problem when I was training in BJJ/MMA and again while a newer student in Krav Maga. There were just not that many women training.

Women have some distinct problems that men usually don't face:

• They are sexually harassed at a much higher rate
• They are stalked at a much higher rate
• They suffer from physical spousal abuse at a much higher rate
• They are raped at a much higher rate
• They are injured or killed by partners at a much higher rate
• They may feel scared or unsafe in many places where a man feels no threat
• They are often physically smaller and have less muscle mass than many men
• Their nature is to be less physically violent
• Socially they are not brought up to fight (at least not like many men are)

The reasons for women to learn self-defense are numerous. Beyond just the physical safety skills learned, there are emotional benefits and the empowerment that comes from the training. I have had so many life changing stories of women learning self-defense, even coming to just one class, that I made it my mission to make our gym as female friendly as possible. The results speak for themselves. 

• We have conducted over 30 women's self-defense workshops in that last two years
• 40%+ of our daily students are women
• We have observed many classes where there are more women than men training
• We have several advanced female students and assistant instructors
• We recently booked an event for 100 (yes, 100!) women to attend a women's self-defense workshop
• Our MeetUp group has 1200+ members!

How do we succeed in getting women to train? The answer is we encourage women to train and we make our school welcoming to them. We present classes in a way that allows women to participate without being intimidated or talked down to. We also have noticed that parents want their daughters to train in self-defense, so we made family memberships affordable. 

-Mike

How we do testing at Crucible

This question comes up a lot, so I thought a blog post about it would help. Here is my basic philosophy on our daily curriculum: teach what can be used, not for a belt. We teach our daily classes so that you can learn how to defend yourself in the shortest amount of time possible. But Krav Maga also has a ranking system, so how do we address the needs of those who want to rank? 

The answer is that we test about every 6 months, and the two weeks leading up to the test we start to focus the nightly curriculum around material found in the tests. You should notice that you probably already know 85% of it, you just didn't know you knew it. This allows us to fill in the gaps for students. We also have pre-testing workshops on the Friday evening and Saturday afternoon prior to the test day (on Sundays from 1 - 6pm). This gives us even more time to fill in the gaps and allows students to ask questions. 

While testing is not a focus of the school, it is something that I HIGHLY recommend every student do. Why? Mostly because of the opportunity to compress a lot of great knowledge in a short period of time. At the instructor level this is basically how we learn as well. We attend workshops with those that teach us (KMG Global Team) over a long weekend to get our techniques tuned up. 

It also gives students a chance to understand where there may be gaps in their knowledge, and work with instructors to fill them in as needed. We teach the courses so that students can basically come to any class and fit in perfectly. However, that means that you might have missed those nights when we covered a key part of the testing material for your rank. By attending the workshop and test, you may uncover material that you didn't know you had missed. 

If there are any questions, please just ask! 

-Mike

Discipline is greater than Motivation

I recently put a post on my Facebook page (here) that discipline is greater than motivation. To start, lets define each. Motivation is wanting to do something. Discipline is doing something even when you don't want to.

Discipline is the number one thing that will determine how successful you are at almost anything. You can have all of the physical, mental or financial gifts imaginable, but if you can't apply yourself over the long haul you will have a hard time reaching your goals.

During summer there are a huge number of distractions from vacations to just doing fun things with friends and family. We usually see a dip at the end of summer going into fall. When back to school starts to take priority, training takes a back seat and students start to drop out. In my personal experience, if a student has less than 2 years of consistent training, taking a two week break will almost always cause them to lose track of training permanently about 70% of the time. I've read that it takes 90 days to make a permanent change in your behavior, but for something that takes as much commitment as training in Krav does, I would say that is way too short of a window. 

How can you keep your training on track with so many distractions? Set your schedule and let it run on auto pilot. Schedule events around your training, not vice versa. If your training times are unmovable blocks on your calendar, you will likely stick to them over the long term.

-Mike